Accounting for Data: A Shortcoming in Accounting for Intangible Assets‪.‬

ABSTRACT In today's economy and in the future, intellectual capital and the proper use of information will be critical to the success of many firms. Data has been called the raw material of information. Data can be aggregated, disaggregated, sorted, and subjected to a variety of mathematical and logical manipulations. Data can be added to a system, removed, bought, sold and used. Data can be enhanced making it more valuable and it can be made less valuable with repeated use and with the passage of time. Because data is a critical firm resource, one expects the cost of data to be accounted for and to appear on the firm's balance sheet with other firm assets. However, depending on the data's genealogy, the cost of the data may never be shown as an asset.